City officials are allowing more road closures on Fourth Street in downtown Columbus from 4 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays to allow restaurants on the street’s west block to have additional outdoor seating starting Friday.
Lucabe Coffee co-owner Tyler Hodge said that the request was a collaboration between restaurants that touch Fourth Street or are nearby. These restaurants include his coffee shop, the Garage Pub and Grill, Columbus Bar, Taku Steak House, Yats, Bucceto’s, Bucceto’s Pizza and Pasta and Luciana’s Mexican Restaurant and Cantina.
The board of works approved the restaurants’ special use right of way request along with a similar request by the Fourth Street Bar & Grill. The restaurants will be able to close the road on weekend evenings through Oct. 31 and expand their outdoor patio seating. Hodge said that the restaurant owners have all agreed to close the street every weekend, except for when the weather is poor.
As Indiana moves into Stage Four of reopening, restaurants are now allowed to have dining at 75% of their max capacity. Hodge said that, for him, it makes sense to add in that increased seating outdoors, as people find it more comfortable and enjoyable.
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“For us, our outdoor seating in the warmer months has always been a real big hit for people,” he said.
Hodge said that Lucabe’s and the other restaurants are also looking at ways to transform Fourth Street into a hub of downtown activity with street games and live music, similar to what one might find in Indianapolis.
“We’re trying to take that vision and bring it to Fourth Street, and that’s kind of the original intent of Fourth Street when it was originally designed,” he said. He added that he hopes people will be able to enjoy the atmosphere while still staying safe and social distancing.
For Lucabe’s, this vision includes extending closing time to 9 p.m. starting next Friday, serving more dessert options (such as affogatos) and offering “coffee classes.”
“We’re also working with the city and others to try to bring some ambient lighting and other aspects to Fourth Street that will help create a much better ambience down there,” Hodge said. “There’s a little legwork yet to do on that, but that’s one of the other aspects we’re trying to do to just kind of beautify that area and create really an attraction that will be desirable for people to want to come back downtown and to enjoy, you know, the downtown area and all the restaurants. Because we’ve got quite a diverse group of pubs and restaurants and bars down there that really is quite enjoyable.”
Hodge added that with fewer workers in the downtown area at the moment, it’s important to find ways to bring people back and to “bring energy and life back into downtown.”
“We want to provide people an escape, an enjoyable place in their hometown to get outside and have something to do, to enjoy dinner and drinks and desserts downtown, while going to an area that has a nice ambience, it’s attractive,” he said. “There’s lots of options downtown. And they feel safe to do it while they can have fun. That’s really what we’re trying to create and bring some life back to downtown.”
